Over Half of Brazilians Surveyed Do not Believe That Hosting the World Cup Will Leave a Legacy

04/08/2014 - 09h09

The confidence of Brazilians that hosting a World Cup will leave a legacy to the population is declining, a survey by Datafolha revealed.

The championship will bring more harm according to 49% of respondents, versus 31% who think that there will be benefits to hosting the competition (20% did not answer the question).

In June 2013 there was a balance: 41% said the harm would be greater, but 44% of Brazilians said the World Cup would bring more benefits.

Datafolha also asked about benefits and harm to Brazilians in general and 55% said that the World Cup would bring more harm, versus 36% who spoke of a huge benefit.

The survey was taken last year during the period in which popular demonstrations spread throughout Brazil and two days before the final of the Confederations Cup, held on June 30 and won by Brazil (3-0 against Spain, at Maracanã), the event considered a test for the World Cup.

"Even now, removed from the protests, criticism over hosting the Cup has grown. This is a significant result, as the population was previously divided", said Mauro Paulino, general director of Datafolha.

"Brazilians are not stupid. The change of water into wine that was promised in 2007 [the year Brazil was elected as a host]. It wasn't imagined that there would be a problem with the budget, with a brutal reduction of investments in urban mobility, for example. There is no legacy", said Fernando Ferreira, director of Pluri Consulting, specializing in sports marketing.

The survey was conducted between April 2nd and 3rd in 162 municipalities. 2,637 people were interviewed, with a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

APPROVAL FOR THE CUP

For the first time, according to Datafolha, the number of people who support hosting the World Cup in Brazil was below 50%.

With a little over two months to go before the event, which will have Brazil facing Croatia in the opening match on June 12th in São Paulo, 48% of survey respondents said they supported having the World Cup take place in Brazil.

This figure has slid downward since 2008, when the first survey was conducted, but the last one conducted in February was within the margin of error.

In November 2008, the year following Brazil as a choice for hosting, World Cup approval was at 79%, a number that has dropped to 65% (in June 2013) and 52% (February 2014).

41% of the participants polled in the latest survey were against hosting the World Cup, also the highest number since 2008, which had been at only 10% (see details above).

"The population was initially excited because Brazil got to host the Cup again, 60 years after 1950. Everything changed with the poor execution of the project. A focus on stadiums and a lack of communication with the population undermined the government project," assessed sports consultant Amir Somoggi.

Translated by STEVE HUGHES

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